A couple of the tags that Redspencer uses to describe their music on their Bandcamp page are \u201clo-fi\u201d and \u201cslacker.\u201d These descriptors suit \u201cG-Talk,\u201d the opening track from this young Melbourne-based outfit\u2019s debut LP. The song is a laidback and dreamy guitar-pop number, in which frontman Dave McMillan sings in his boyish and deadbeat voice, \u201c\u2026Everybody dies \/ But I\u2019m not really scared, \u2018cause that seems miles away \/ I wanna go out tonight \/ I\u2019m burning bright.\u201d<\/p>\n
A similarly nonchalant youthful sentiment drives the music of another young Aussie outfit, the Sydney-based Glass Towers on their debut Halcyon Days<\/i>. However, while Glass Towers expresses their youth through energetic and passionate songs with soaring and lush music, Redspencer expresses theirs through sleepy and unexcited cuts with lazy bedroom-pop music. Nevertheless, the youthfulness of both these bands is equally as authentic and contagious, which is why both these very different albums are equally compelling.<\/p>\n
On one hand, the carefree indifference on Perks<\/i> is pretty amusing, especially with McMillan\u2019s rather dry lyrics and vocal, which can be quite acerbic and mundane at the same time \u2013 take \u201cSome People,\u201d which features the sentiment \u201cSome people just don\u2019t give a fuck \/ Whatever concerns me and mine \/ Long as I got a drink in hand, easy to keep an absent mind\u201d (\u201cSome People\u201d). Meanwhile, lines like \u201cSunshine everything is fine purely divine \/ Daily gift of boundless bliss \/ Alcohol induced happiness and truth forevermore\u201d on \u201cRainbows\u201d extol booze as a ticket to happiness and peace in a do-nothing idler lifestyle.<\/p>\n
On the other, there is some real heartwrenching beauty to the slackerdom of this album\u2019s songs. While the album opener \u201cG-Talk\u201d might appear as the perfect track to encompass the overall nonchalance of Perks<\/i>, it doesn\u2019t represent the haunting melodiousness that prevails here. Cuts like \u201cConvenience,\u201d \u201cHard Work,\u201d \u201cRide It Out,\u201d \u201cSpare Me,\u201d and \u201cFuss,\u201d along with the aforementioned \u201cSome People\u201d and \u201cRainbows,\u201d wrap the album\u2019s goofiness (of which the number \u201cPetrol\u201d is full of) with seriously melodic music that is bathed in wistfulness.<\/p>\n
Perks <\/i>was recorded to tape out of a makeshift studio. From one point of view, this makes the quirky insouciance of the album feel more genuine. At the same time, this lack of polish makes its tender moments utterly from the heart and free from any conceit. Sure, \u201cdrinking beer\u201d is one philosophy of this album, but it is the sheer lack of vanity in embracing this philosophy and turning it into great music that makes this effort so gratifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9964],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44842","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-redspencer","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44842"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}